Chitambo fire, September 2024 Chitambo, Lavushimanda
The fire started on 5 September 2024 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 37th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 17 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 14,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 5 Sept 2024 – 15 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 587
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 23 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,633 ha in 2016, 7,480 ha in 2017, 9,182 ha in 2018, 8,695 ha in 2019, 11,276 ha in 2020, 11,105 ha in 2021, 7,711 ha in 2022, 8,377 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,448 ha that had burned before.
- 11,105 ha Chitambo fire, September 2021 39,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,086 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 25,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,563 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 12,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,155 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 25,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,621 ha Chitambo fire, September 2023 21,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,835 ha Chitambo fire, September 2016 18,853 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,193 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 11,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,797 ha Chitambo fire, September 2022 6,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitambo where it started14,024 ha reached on 7 Sept1.2 %
-
480 ha reached on 9 Sept0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 22.8 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Sept | 24.5 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Sept | 24.2 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Sept | 25.4 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Sept | 26.0 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Sept | 27.3 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Sept | 25.9 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Sept | 26.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 Sept | 27.4 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Sept | 27.4 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Sept | 27.1 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.3 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Sept after | 28.0 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Sept after | 27.0 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Sept after | 23.2 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 9 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 11 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 587Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 46,195 haChitambo29 August 2026 · 31 days · 4 km away
- 25,336 haChitambo7 September 2020 · 9 days · 5 km away
- 21,401 haChitambo6 September 2023 · 8 days · 7 km away
- 25,250 haChitambo8 September 2018 · 13 days · 9 km away
- 65,144 haChitambo1 September 2025 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 39,948 haChitamboSeptember 2021 · 14 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chitambo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2024 and 15 September 2024: 11 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,404 hectares (144.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (14,024 ha, 1.2 %); Lavushimanda (480 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.